Product Description

`she tried to settle that most difficult problem for women, how much was to be utterly merged in obedience to authority, and how much might be set apart for freedom in working.' North and South is a novel about rebellion. Moving from the industrial riots of discontented millworkers through to the unsought passions of a middle-class woman, and from religious crises of conscience to the ethics of naval mutiny, it poses fundamental questions about the nature of social authority and obedience. Through the story of Margaret Hale, the middle-class southerner who moves to the northern industrial town of Milton, Gaskell skilfully explores issues of class and gender in the conflict between Margaret's ready sympathy with the workers and her growing attraction to the charismatic mill ownder, John Thornton. This new revised and expanded edition sets the novel in the context of Victorian social and medical debate.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4462 in Books
• Published on: 1996-01-25
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 480 pages

Synopsis
This is one of the earliest novels of industrial alienation, tellingly linked to the plight of 19th-century women. It tells of the relationship between Margaret Hale, a girl from the old rural south, and John Thornton, a mill owner from the new industrial north.

About the Author
The most comprehensive paperback edition available Includes introduction, notes, selected criticism, further reading, text summary and chronology of Elizabeth Gaskell's life and times Reset with wide B format pages to give generous margins for notes An important addition to, and finally completing the Gaskell series in Everyman

Customer Reviews

very good,tho not as good as i thought it would be
I like this book but have to say i thought it would be alot better...it is the tale of the contrast between the country and the city and two characters caught up in that...and it is very good, but quite stretched for such a big book and i just found it a bit of a tug sometimes to get through...and the "I don't love you"..oh hang on..."i love you lots now" thing was a bit vexing
Very good but there are better books in my opinion..but i would recommend it, just not as highly as others

Too long, boring
This is the first Elizabeth Gaskell book I've ever read and unfortunately not very impressed. The overall subject seems to be the love story in our heroine's life, however, book tries to give so many other mesages that it is not fun or focused anymore. There are social issues, emerging new worker-master dynamics in the victorian time, continues questioning of death and beyond... Within all this it is impossible to get a true taste of a social, phylosophical or romance novel.
Although I like the period books very much, I could barely finish this one.

The perfect love story
North and South is my favourite book and I think that it's not known enough. Many people had compared Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen with the Gaskell's book, but, in truth, they are very different.
I prefer N&S to P&P because the love between Margaret and Mr Thornton has more passion than the love between Elizabeth and Darcy.
Austen is a genius and I love her novels but she gave us only borders and shadings, Gaskell gave us a picture completed.
I'm very attracted by the idea that a man of power, self-control, strong, firm, could fall so desperately in love with a woman and could become fragile like a child, "she thought she had seen the gleam of unshed tears in his eyes", said Margaret after Mr Thornton's proposal and her vehement refusal.
There are social themes, but I found them interesting too and not boring.
I don't like to call it a social novel, for me it's, first of all, a Romance with a social commentary in the background.
North and South deserves more readers from my point of view and I highly recommended it!